(Mostly) Summer Blooming Aloes For Bloom Day July 2016

Above:  Orange flowers of Aloe 'Cynthia Gitty' with golden flowers of Aloe megalacantha

 Aloe megalacantha and Aloe 'Cynthia Gitty' have been reliable summer bloomers.  Last summer they produced no flowers.  This year, they have. 

I made changes to get their summer flowers again, moving their sprinkler in from the concrete curb and changing the sprinkler out for a taller one, so the spray waters both 'Cynthia' and the megalacantha behind it, instead of the single 'Cynthia Gitty' rosette growing directly in front of the sprinkler.    

Working on irrigation is worthwhile misery.  We're all happier.

While I photographed, a hummingbird coming in for nectar nearly collided with me.  He landed on Agave marmorata and glared until I retreated.

The garden is home to only a few summer blooming Aloes--hybrids like 'Cynthia Gitty', x Noblis, and 'Roikoppe' that repeat frequently--though there are some species that bloom in summer.  The garden's copies of Aloe dhurafensis, A. tomentosa, and A. reitzii, summer bloomers all, are not yet large enough to flower.

Slow growing A. reitzii, recently planted where it can (finally) get sufficient summer water, looks excellent (finally).  It's taken eight years to get this big (12").  My bad.  It wanted for summer water.

 I'm trying to imagine how old the UCI Botanic Garden's A. reitzii is.  Wowza!

Here is one of the Huntington's, blooming July 2015:

 

  Aloe x noblis, may be a cross of either mitriformis and brevifolia, or distans and brevifolia.  (Mitriformis and distans may be the same species.  Or not.) 

 The garden began with one variegated x Noblis rosette.  Now there are several, both variegated and plain green.  Green rosettes have produced variegated rosettes as well as green.  The flowers are the same.
 Sweet flowers for summer, striking plant the year round. 

Aloe 'Roikoppe' blooms off and on, mostly on.  

 Aloe vera, the most commonly grown Aloe, is a spring and summer bloomer, but I don't have it--it seemed so...common.  Nice yellow flowers in summer, though.  Maybe I need it after all.  Here's one of the Huntington's, from last weekend.

 Beyond Aloes this July,  Rhombophyllum nellii's once-a-year, penny-sized flowers should be noted:

As well as the reliably July show from the red, broccoli-like flowers of Crassula perfoliata var falcata var minor, still recovering from a move, but already healthier in some shade and with a little more water: 

Another member of Crassulaceae, Echeveria subridgida.

While I was admiring E. subridgida, the same hummer buzzed me again, perching on another Agave to evil-eye me again.

 

Lobelia 'Queen Victoria', open at last! 

Do we have time for a rose?  This is leap year for 'Munstead Wood'

In closing, glorious Dahlia 'Cafe au Lait' yet again.  This is your  moment, darling.  Flaunt it!

Thanks again to May Dreams for a wonderful meme!